Congratulations ALA Music, Dance and Theater Program!
Our Music Dance Theatre program has produced two outstanding musicals this school year: Les Misérables in November and Tuck Everlasting in March. For both musicals, our students received adjudications and nominations from the Utah High School Musical Theatre Awards, a program produced by Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre and directed by Vanessa Ballum.
From the initial nominations, the students are then considered for the top ten finalist spots for the awards ceremony in May. ALA received SEVEN finalist nominations!
Dylan Bradford – Best Actor (Man in the Yellow Suit, Tuck Everlasting)
Sarah Bennett – Best Actress (Winnie Foster, Tuck Everlasting)
Dillon Ellis – Best Supporting Actor (Marius, Les Miserables)
Best Musical – Tuck Everlasting
Best Director – Tuck Everlasting
Best Scenic Design – Tuck Everlasting
Best Student Choreography – Malaina Dunford (Tuck Everlasting)
Since ALA is nominated for Best Musical, the MDT students have the opportunity to perform a number from Tuck Everlasting in the awards ceremony at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on May 13th. If our Best Actor and Best Actress finalists (Sarah Bennett and Dylan Bradford) win the awards, they qualify for the national Jimmy Awards in New York City this coming summer.
We as directors and teachers are SO PROUD of these students for the extraordinary work they have done in Music Dance Theatre this year. They took bold risks and rose to the occasion of putting on two musicals while still excelling academically and in their other extracurricular programs. We love that their talents and hard work are being recognized by professionals in the musical theatre industry.